April 2024 – DigitalKoans

IT Professional 2 at University of Nevada

The Professional will be part of the Libraries Digital Services Department. Under the direction of the Manager of Digital Services, this position will support two areas: helping users publish their scholarship in the University’s institutional repository and efforts to preserve research data generated on campus using the Libraries’ digital preservation system. This work involves troubleshooting technical issues and applying best practices regarding file formats and metadata, while working closely with faculty and students.

https://tinyurl.com/ysecunys

"The Products and Multi-Disciplinarity of Data-Centric Tasks: Influences on Data Searchers’ Behaviors and Cognition"

The study sought to answer the following research questions:

RQ 1: How do data-centric tasks with different products and levels of multi-disciplinarity affect data search behaviors?

RQ 2: How do data-centric tasks with different products and levels of multi-disciplinarity affect the utilization of different cognitive systems?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2024.101302

Instructional Design Librarian at University of Alabama

This position serves a dual role as a librarian participating in multimodal library and information literacy instruction and as an instructional design specialist directly developing content and training liaison librarians who are building instructional design projects.

https://tinyurl.com/ded6wdn4

"First Post: A History of Online Public Messaging"

From BBS to Facebook, Here’s How Messaging Platforms Have Changed over the Years

In 1971, Ray Tomlinson wrote the first inter-computer messaging program, SNDMSG. Because he had to differentiate between the receiver’s username and the name of the computer they were using, he needed a character that wouldn’t be part of either. He hit "SHIFT-P" on the Model 33 Teletype, got an @, and the rest was history. Email was born. . . .

In 1978, Randy Seuss and Ward Christensen took a jury-rigged clone of an Altair computer, connected it to a modem, and wrote the software that would change the world. CBBS, which stood for Chicago Bulletin Board System, was a server that anyone in the world could call up on their own computer, using their own modem, through regular phone lines. . . .

Usenet, which came alive in 1979, was a public message board divided into different "newsgroups" on various topics. . . . Admins at each site, which were generally Unix servers at universities or corporate laboratories, would decide which newsgroups to carry, and the software would automatically dial up other servers to send every message posted to these newsgroups.

https://tinyurl.com/3dsxjurw

User Experience Researcher/Designer at Harvard University

Harvard Library is beginning significant work related to the Reimagining Discovery Project to revolutionize how researchers, students, and the global community access and explore Harvard’s extensive collections. Through this work we want to make all kinds of information easily discoverable and accessible. We intend to center our users in the design of this new unified search.

Reporting to the Head of UX & Digital Accessibility, the UX Researcher/Designer will play a significant role in this project. Building on existing research, the person in this role will engage with users to confirm their needs, preferences, and behaviors for a unified search system. They will conduct user research with multiple audience segments and synthesize findings into recommendations for the product team. Additionally, the person in this role will create wireframes and prototypes as research artifacts that will inform the product development.

https://tinyurl.com/42r8495n

AI for Scientific Discovery: Proceedings of a Workshop

While AI in the context of scientific investigation has existed for decades, advances in computational technology and sensing in the physical world have created opportunities to integrate AI into science in unexpected ways, with capabilities that are rapidly accelerating. As a result, AI has been leveraged by an expanding collection of disciplines in the physical and biological sciences, as well as engineering domains. While the opportunities for AI in scientific discovery seem endless, there are numerous questions about what makes for trustworthy and reliable discovery, whether such investigation should be performed without human oversight or intervention, and how best to prioritize the research agenda and allocation of resources without magnifying disparities for individuals and nations alike.

https://tinyurl.com/zf6vy9ca

Digital Asset Management System Coordinator at University of Texas Austin

As a part of the Preservation & Digital Stewardship unit, this position provides management and oversight of the Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) and affiliated public-facing discovery interfaces for UT Libraries, including policy and workflow development, training, and metadata support.

https://tinyurl.com/3smudkrp

"An Analysis of the Effects of Sharing Research Data, Code, and Preprints on Citations"

In this study, we investigate whether adopting one or more Open Science practices leads to significantly higher citations for an associated publication, which is one form of academic impact. We use a novel dataset known as Open Science Indicators, produced by PLOS and DataSeer, which includes all PLOS publications from 2018 to 2023 as well as a comparison group sampled from the PMC Open Access Subset. In total, we analyze circa 122’000 publications. We calculate publication and author-level citation indicators and use a broad set of control variables to isolate the effect of Open Science Indicators on received citations. We show that Open Science practices are adopted to different degrees across scientific disciplines. We find that the early release of a publication as a preprint correlates with a significant positive citation advantage of about 20.2% on average. We also find that sharing data in an online repository correlates with a smaller yet still positive citation advantage of 4.3% on average. However, we do not find a significant citation advantage for sharing code.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.16171

"Health Data Sharing Attitudes Towards Primary and Secondary Use of Data: A Systematic Review"

Of 2109 studies identified through our search, 116 were included in the qualitative synthesis, yielding a total of 228,501 participants and various types of HD represented: person-generated HD (n = 17 studies and 10,771 participants), personal HD in general (n = 69 studies and 117,054 participants), Biobank data (n = 7 studies and 27,073 participants), genomic data (n = 13 studies and 54,716 participants), and miscellaneous data (n = 10 studies and 18,887 participants). The majority of studies had a moderate level of quality (83 [71.6%] of 116 studies), but varying levels of quality were observed across the included studies. Overall, studies suggest that sharing intentions for primary purposes were observed to be high regardless of data type, and it was higher than sharing intentions for secondary purposes. Sharing for secondary purposes yielded variable findings, where both the highest and the lowest intention rates were observed in the case of studies that explored sharing biobank data (98% and 10%, respectively). Several influencing factors on sharing intentions were identified, such as the type of data recipient, data, consent. Further, concerns related to data sharing that were found to be mutual for all data types included privacy, security, and data access/control, while the perceived benefits included those related to improvements in healthcare. Findings regarding attitudes towards sharing varied significantly across sociodemographic factors and depended on data type and type of use. In most cases, these findings were derived from single studies and therefore warrant confirmations from additional studies. . ..

Sharing health data is a complex issue that is influenced by various factors (the type of health data, the intended use, the data recipient, among others) and these insights could be used to overcome barriers, address people’s concerns, and focus on spreading awareness about the data sharing process and benefits.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102551

Digital Library Data Engineer at Harvard University

The Library Technology Services (LTS) team at Harvard University is seeking an inquisitive and motivated Data Engineer to join our exciting project to build the the university’s next generation Digital Preservation System. This role will be responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of data APIs, extract/load/transform (ETL) activities, helping to manage data migration from existing data endpoints to the new systems and defining data integration services for our application portfolio.

https://tinyurl.com/5dm98e3k

Open Research Coordinator for Data and Software at University of Texas Austin

The Open Research Coordinator will provide research data and software sharing assistance to UT faculty, students, and staff. They will work in coordination with campus partners such as the UT Open Source Program Office and support university researchers through consultation sessions, resource guides, instructional programming, and event coordination. Their work will facilitate researcher use of the Texas Data Repository and ensure that deposited data and code is curated in accordance with FAIR principles to foster research reproducibility.

https://tinyurl.com/ycyxcxeb

"Seek and You May (Not) Find: A Multi-Institutional Analysis of Where Research Data Are Shared"

Research data sharing has become an expected component of scientific research and scholarly publishing practice over the last few decades, due in part to requirements for federally funded research. As part of a larger effort to better understand the workflows and costs of public access to research data, this project conducted a high-level analysis of where academic research data is most frequently shared. To do this, we leveraged the DataCite and Crossref application programming interfaces (APIs) in search of Publisher field elements demonstrating which data repositories were utilized by researchers from six academic research institutions between 2012–2022. In addition, we also ran a preliminary analysis of the quality of the metadata associated with these published datasets, comparing the extent to which information was missing from metadata fields deemed important for public access to research data. Results show that the top 10 publishers accounted for 89.0% to 99.8% of the datasets connected with the institutions in our study. Known data repositories, including institutional data repositories hosted by those institutions, were initially lacking from our sample due to varying metadata standards and practices. We conclude that the metadata quality landscape for published research datasets is uneven; key information, such as author affiliation, is often incomplete or missing from source data repositories and aggregators. To enhance the findability, interoperability, accessibility, and reusability (FAIRness) of research data, we provide a set of concrete recommendations that repositories and data authors can take to improve scholarly metadata associated with shared datasets.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302426

Data Visualization and GIS Specialist at Texas State University

The Specialist will serve as the lead for the Research Data Services Department in geospatial visualization services in addition to assisting researchers across disciplines in data analysis and visualization tools, methods, and best practices. Through outreach to faculty, students, and interdisciplinary partners, the Specialist promotes and engages the university community with the Libraries’ data visualization and GIS services.

https://tinyurl.com/nhc9u8nw

"Data Services at the Academic Library: A Natural History of Horses and Unicorns"

Methods: We used a web-based inventory of 25 academic libraries at U.S. Research 1 (R1) Carnegie institutions to assess the state of data services at university libraries. We categorized and quantified services, and tested for an effect of library resourcing on the size of library data service portfolios.

Results: Support for data management and geospatial services was relatively widespread, with increasing support in areas of data analyses and data visualization. There was significant variation among services in the modality in which they were offered (web, consult, instruction) and library resourcing had a significant effect on the number of data services a library offered.

https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.780

Digital Preservation Archivist at Smith College

The Digital Preservation Archivist will hold a leadership position in the implementation of Preservica as Smith College Libraries first enterprise level digital preservation system. Though situated in the SCSC technical service group, the successful candidate will work with all members of the SCSC unit to ensure the long term discoverability and accessibility of unique digital assets. As the program matures, the Digital Preservation Archivist will also work with other collections-based departments on campus — the Smith College Museum of Art and the Smith College Botanic Garden — as well as those in the Five Colleges consortium.

https://tinyurl.com/6dtf5j2x

"NSF Invests $90M in Innovative National Scientific Cyberinfrastructure for Transforming Stem Education"

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced today a strategic investment of $90 million over five years in SafeInsights, a unique national scientific cyberinfrastructure aimed at transforming learning research and STEM education. Funded through the Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure Level-2 program (Mid-scale RI-2), SafeInsights is led by OpenStax at Rice University, who will oversee the implementation and launch of this new research infrastructure project of unprecedented scale and scope.

SafeInsights aims to serve as a central hub, facilitating research coordination and leveraging data across a range of major digital learning platforms that currently serve tens of millions of U.S. learners across education levels and science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

With its controlled and intuitive framework, unique privacy-protecting approach and emphasis on the inclusion of students, educators and researchers from diverse backgrounds, SafeInsights will enable extensive, long-term research on the predictors of effective learning, which are key to academic success and persistence. . . .

Because progress in science, technology and innovation increasingly relies on advanced research infrastructure — including equipment, cyberinfrastructure, large-scale datasets and skilled personnel — this Mid-scale RI-2 investment will allow researchers to delve into deeper and broader scientific inquiries than ever before.

https://tinyurl.com/2pps983j

Award Abstract

Open Scholarship Librarian at University of Virginia

Reporting to the Director, Digital Strategies and Scholarly Communication Services, the Open Scholarship Librarian is accountable for developing and implementing a comprehensive, proactive outreach program to University members on open scholarship services, including the institutional repository and Aperio publishing platform, and ensuring all services support the ability of University community members to meet federal grant and other open scholarship policies. Additionally, the Librarian seeks opportunities to expand the reach and use of Libra beyond traditional self-deposited content.

https://tinyurl.com/3jn842ez

Paywall: "FCC Reinstates Net Neutrality, but It’s Not as Easy as It Once Was"

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 Thursday to put the internet back under “net neutrality” regulation, reprising Obama-era rules that prohibit internet service providers from discriminating against certain websites by throttling or blocking them. . . .

As the internet has proliferated, the question of precisely where it begins and ends has become murkier. Now, some mobile executives are arguing that an emerging 5G technology called "network slicing" should be considered to lie in the hazy realm beyond the internet’s borders, unconstrained by net neutrality.

The proposal has sparked controversy because these 5G "slices" are not just a small side show and may well be core to what the internet becomes in its next phase.

https://tinyurl.com/rheaejzk

E-Resource Librarian at University of Pennsylvania

Part of the Acquisitions, Access and Licensing (AAL) Department at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, the eResource Librarian contributes to the responsible and efficient expenditure of the Libraries’ budget for collections and directly supports the research, teaching and learning mission of the Libraries by participating in electronic resource lifecycle management and workflows, including acquisition, licensing, discovery, access, maintenance, and evaluation. The incumbent ensures access to and support for robust, distinctive and innovative collecting, efficient and careful acquisition of online resources, and effective engagement with colleagues across the Libraries and externally with consortia and vendors.

https://tinyurl.com/yc49jwj5

"The Collective Use and Evaluation of Generative AI Tools in Digital Humanities Research: Survey-Based Results"

By investigating DH scholars’ use of GenAI tools in their research, this survey study makes several contributions. First, our findings demonstrate GenAI’s important role in enriching DH research, detailing specific, effective instances of its application that may inform DH scholars planning to apply GenAI tools in their future research. Secondly, the incorporation of GenAI in DH research raises important ethical and social concerns. Our study illuminates the potential risks, such as disputes over authorship, the emergence of biases, and the need for greater transparency and accountability in AI-involved DH research.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12458

Systems and Discovery Librarian at University of Georgia Libraries

This role will manage and support the Library Management System (FOLIO), facilitating import, export, and interoperability of metadata in library systems; guiding the creative integration of the library system with the Library’s website and other systems; Collaborating with the Library IT, campus technology departments, staff, librarians, and teaching faculty to design, promote, and improve online access and integration of library resources and collections; Initiating both the implementation and the awareness of new features that enhance user success in finding and using library content; Serving on Library, campus, regional, and national organizations and initiatives.

https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/366675

Research Data Management for Arts and Humanities: Intergrating Voices of the Community

Chapter one gives an overview of the European and national policy environment which has given rise to research data management and sharing mandates, as well as the institutional support structures around them. In chapter two, which is dedicated to implementation and everyday practice, the authors of this publication share how their institutions have developed capacities to accommodate data support professions, and also share their own career paths leading to such roles. After the first two chapters have set the stage and recounted the authors’ reflections on these new roles, the rest of the publication highlights and discusses some of the key domain-specificities of research data management in the Arts and Humanities. Chapter 3.1 reflects on the implications of the lack of consensus around the notion of data within the Arts and Humanities domain through a case study of digital critical editions. Chapter 3.2 addresses the challenges around the, essentially, multilingual character of arts and humanities data, with special focus on multilingual vocabularies and thesauri. Chapter 3.3 provides support for research scenarios where open data sharing is either impossible or is difficult due to legal and ethical limitations, and navigates the complexities of intellectual property and the application of regulatory frameworks, including restrictions on text and data mining, and authentication and authorisation in an open world. Clearly, the discourse on data sharing cannot be complete without discussing the current limitations within research assessment and rewards criteria, nor highlighting initiatives which aim to incentivise and reward data sharing in the working/professional contexts of the Working Group’s members. A discussion on rewards can be found in Chapter 3.4. Chapter 3.5 addresses one of the most widely shared data management challenges within the domain and brings together use cases concerning successful collaborations between cultural heritage institutions and arts and humanities research teams. Finally, Chapter 3.6 showcases good practices in long-term archiving

https://tinyurl.com/ycxbrh33

Library Research Data Manager at University of South Florida

This position has primary responsibility for the USF Libraries Research Data Management program including data curation, consultations regarding data repository use, and deployment of best practices in data management to the USF Libraries and the campus community. The Library RDM supports USF researchers throughout the research data lifecycle to meeting their planning, management, analysis, sharing and archival needs. This may include advising researchers on the use of disciplinary repositories, USF Libraries Digital Commons institutional repository, and other data sharing and preservation platforms to facilitate discovery, reproducibility, and long-term access.

https://tinyurl.com/3h9p2x8z

"Harvard Library is Launching Harvard Open Journals Program"

Harvard Library is launching a new initiative called the Harvard Open Journals Program (HOJP), which will help researchers advance scholarly publishing that is open access, sustainable, and equitable. HOJP will provide publishing services, resources, and seed funding to participating Harvard researchers for new academic journals. All journal articles will be entirely free for authors and readers, with no barriers to publish or to access.. . . Yuan Li, University Scholarly Communication Officer and Director of Open Scholarship and Research Data Services at Harvard Library, pointed out the innovative nature of the program, "It is new for an institution to support faculty in seeking out an academic press to publish a no-fee open access journal and to provide assistance in securing its long-term funding. And offering a repository overlay journal model provides an alternative that appeals to some editorial boards and is gaining traction through initiatives such as Episciences. As we implement and refine this program on our campus, we hope it will inspire other universities to adopt such approaches to supporting barrier-free scholarly publishing."

https://tinyurl.com/ymkhs4db

Digital Scholarship Librarian at University of Oklahoma

This position will support faculty and student digital research projects with guidance from the Director of Digital Scholarship and Data Services, ranging from short and long-term consultations (e.g., helping to identify appropriate methods, tools, and training resources) to more intensive, hands-on assistance with technology solutions for digital scholarship. As a supporting role in the Libraries digital scholarship services, this position delivers library instruction, reference services, instructional guides and research aids within the scope of their domain. This role will participate in research technology assessments, answer patron questions, compile data, and represent the Libraries digital scholarship services to internal and external users.

https://tinyurl.com/3vt6jxxt